Iqaluit reaches tentative wage deal with union

The City of Iqaluit and its unionized workers, represented by Local 6 of the Nunavut Employees Union, reached a tentative new wage-benefit deal Sept. 30, a City of Iqaluit news release said.

The two-year package, if ratified by each side, would give city workers annual 2.5 per cent wage increases over the life of the two-year deal. The vacation travel allowance benefit remains unchanged.

“I think both sides feel good about the settlement. I’m always grateful for all the hard and good work our staff do for us,” Iqaluit mayor Madeleine Redfern said in a tweet.

Redfern said the new “memorandum of settlement” was reached with the assistance of a federally appointed conciliator.

The proposed settlement would give workers bigger increases than those set out in the city’s initial wage offer, delivered to the union this past January.

At that time, the city offered the union 1 per cent annual increases over a proposed four-year agreement, with some cuts to vacation travel allowances.

This past May, the union rejected that offer and requested that Lisa Raitt, the national labour minister, appoint a conciliator.

Iqaluit City Council and Local 6 members must now vote to ratify the agreement.

Negotiators for the two sides agreed to the deal on the morning of Sept. 30. Union officials presented it to Local 6 members at a hastily called meeting held at noon.

(More to follow)